I just started listening to the audiobook version of Moby Dick… then this happens. I feel bad now.

The title says it all…

I’m back… OK, so I was almost moved to tears of joy with my MacBook Air, but that almost a year ago. I’ve moved on.

Truth be told, I was going to buy another MacBook Air, having recently sold mine on eBay. The one missing features I really wanted for my Air was a backlit keyboard. Well, they have returned for the 2011 Air’s and I wanted one.

Just one problem– my nearest Apple retail store in Providence, RI was flush out of them. And damn, I drove in the rain for nothing. But while the Apple associate left me standing there for about 10 minutes on two separate occasions, I started liking more and more of what I was seeing in the new MacBook Pro line.

Faster RAM, Quad-core i7 CPU. It all looked really good. This got me into thinking about all the things I would miss if I gave up my Air, and all the things I wouldn’t miss. Quickly, the list of the latter grew much longer than that of the former. My mind was made up.

Sometime later, I wrote down a list of things, just to ease my mind. As you can see, I really don’t miss the MacBook Air all that much.

Things I miss about my MacBook Air…

• FAST SSD Drive – This thing really screamed!
• Form Factor – The MBA was the lightest computer I’ve ever owned.

Things I don’t miss about my MacBook Air…

• Screen Size – At just 13.3″ and 1440 x 900 pixels, the screen looked great, just too damn small.
• No Backlit Keyboard – Trying to type in the dark isn’t fun. Having to crank the brightness just to type is not cool.
• Weak CPU/GPU – Trying to do anything CPU intensive, or working with media would cause the fans to roar, even without Lion installed.
• Power Button – OMG! This one really killed me. The power button *is* one of the keys in the F-row. Trying to clean my keyboard was a nightmare. The power would come on, and I’d quickly have to press the button again to turn the machine off. Rinse and repeat as they say.
• The Speakers – Tiny and Tinny. There were no speaker grills, so the sound just came from under your hands. Not that great.
• Ports – The Air has ports on both sides of the machine. This is due to it’s wedge-shape design. You can’t have ports all along one side because the sides taper to almost nothing up front. This means cables coming from both ends. If you have a stand for your Mac and want to hide the wires, this isn’t’ going to look the best.

So as you can read, I’m really liking my new 15″ MacBook Pro. I would love it even more if it had an SSD inside. I could always upgrade to one, but those suckers are like $500.00 for around 256 GB. I’ll probably wait until Apple moves to offer them as standard equipment in a few years. I figure by 2013, all Macs will ship with SSD, well the Macs I buy anyway.

Ten years after a senseless act of inhumanness, the human race, flawed as ever, tries to move on– forever carrying the weight of past recklessness. Sitting here writing this, part of me is disgusted to share this planet with the likes of people who could hurt so many. From the first day man picked up a stick to fight with, he’s never put it down. The stick has just changed its shaped and effectiveness over the millennia. From a stick, to a stone, to a spear, to an arrow, to a canon– humans are at the end of the road when it comes to weaponry. We have weapons that can destroy not only our enemies, but the entire world.

Part of me thinks a reboot wouldn’t be such a bad idea. In the Hebrew Bible, man couldn’t resist murder when the Earth was inhabited by just a single family. If Cain could kill Abel, what do you think man is capable of doing to the rest of the world?

In a little more than an hour, it will be ten years to the minute that I woke up to Fox News and first heard of something terrible happening in New York City. It wasn’t until I got my bearings and went downstairs to tell me my father, that I realized that something wasn’t right about this “accident,” as it was first being reported. For a moment I was thinking I was watching a replay of the first plane hitting the first tower, but as I quickly realized the other tower was already on fire, to this day I remember the phrase that came out of my mouth “that’s terrorism.” Yes it was.

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Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (1976)

Steve Jobs is the CEO of Apple, which he co-founded in 1976. Apple is leading the consumer technology world with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, its family of iPod media players and iTunes media store, and its Mac computers and iLife and iWork application suites. Apple recently introduced the iPad, a breakthrough Internet and digital media device, plus the iBookstore, alongside iTunes and the App Store.

Steve also co-founded and was the CEO of Pixar Animation Studios, which created some of the most successful and beloved animated films of all time including Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars and Ratatouille. Pixar merged with The Walt Disney Company in 2006 and Steve now serves on Disney’s board of directors.

Steve grew up in the apricot orchards which later became known as Silicon Valley, and still lives there with his family.

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

Get the latest on Steve Jobs.

Most of the applications I use daily reside within my dock. However, there are times when I just want to launch an application without having to go into folders and look for it. In the past, I did use various applications launchers, but I ended up ditching them and just dropping my Applications folder in the dock. This worked great. However, Launchpad, a new feature of Lion basically does the same thing, but with a little more zazz.

However, Launchpad has trouble sorting applications not purchased from the Mac App Store. Although I am trying to make the transition to only MAS apps, I still have some that are either not in the store, or never will be in the store. Apparently, these apps give Launchpad a headache when it comes to sorting.

You can drag/drop your apps and sort them any way you like. Alphabetical is default when you install Lion. However, once you spend some time moving them around, the next time you restart your computer you’ll notice that Launchpad forgot all your hard work and just decided to sort them any old way. Most apps do stay sorted based upon your scheme, but some apps simply won’t comply with your will.

You will need to use the Terminal app to perform these steps. I have tested this process and it works with no problems running Lion (10.7). But… WARNING: Playing with the Terminal can cause your computer to DIE. Please use the Terminal with caution.

Let’s get started.

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Apple’s latest operating system (OS) is out- OS X 10.7, Lion. I paid $29.99 and downloaded it on the first day. The OS is very refined looking and it seems very fast and snappy.  The only real problem so far is with the Mac App Store, which is very slow; understandable since Lion had over a million downloads on the first day and everyone is no doubt looking to update all their Lion compatible apps as well.

But is it all wine and roses? To paraphrase a common Steve Jobs email reply– nope.

Having only used it for about 8 hours since launch, I have several quips with the way Apple has chosen to implement some features and functionality. That is good and the bad with Apple; they often do the thinking for you. Most times they have the better idea, but there are times where they are just a bit ahead of the times. Below are my top 10 grievances with Lion. These by no means change the way I feel about the OS. It’s still light years ahead of Windows. I’ve always said that if you want the functionality of Windows and the security of Linux, you buy a Mac. OS X has since grown much more functional than Windows.

Without further adieu, here is the top 10, in no real particular order.

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NY motorcyclist dies on ride protesting helmet law

ONONDAGA, N.Y. (AP)  Police say a motorcyclist participating in a protest ride against helmet laws in upstate New York died after he flipped over the bike’s handlebars and hit his head on the pavement.

The accident happened Saturday afternoon in the town of Onondaga, in central New York near Syracuse.

State troopers tell The Post-Standard of Syracuse that 55-year-old Philip A. Contos of Parish, N.Y., was driving a 1983 Harley Davidson with a group of bikers who were protesting helmet laws by not wearing helmets.

Troopers say Contos hit his brakes and the motorcycle fishtailed. The bike spun out of control, and Contos toppled over the handlebars. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Troopers say Contos would have likely survived if he had been wearing a helmet.

— Reprinted *without* permission from Associated Press

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